Federal Judge – Montana Safe From Robocalls This Election Season

With the 2018 election season looming and the 2020 presidential race on the horizon, Montanans can be assured of not receiving those annoying robocalls from politicians and advocacy groups.

Spokesman for Montana Attorney General Tim Fox, Eric Sell, said the decision came down last week in favor of a Montana law.

“Last Friday, a federal district court judge upheld the constitutionality of Montana’s law prohibiting robocalls, those automated phone calls you’ll get from candidates ruining for office or for proponents of issue campaigns,” said Sell. “In 1991, the Montana Legislature passed a law prohibiting these types of calls. Last year, there was a challenge to the law from a consulting firm out of Michigan, but Judge Charles Lovell ruled that the law was constitutional, and that there is a governmental interest protecting individual privacy in their own homes to not be bothered by these unwanted calls.”

Sell said preventing such calls is difficult, and the more tools the state has to protect its citizens, the better.

“The people of Montana, through their representatives in the legislature, said they don’t want robocalls,” he said. “As our tactics for preventing those kids of calls improves, the technology also becomes more effective in the prevention end, so we want to have a law that enables us to do that. It’s very fortunate that we do have some clarity with the law during the election seasons to come.”